British Section
1. Pegasus Bridge Memorial. Hear the story of the capture of this bridge on the night of June 5-6, 1944 by British commandos who arrived by air in gliders. The action was swift, and the bridge was renamed “Pegasus Bridge” in 1945.
2. Visit the “Glider Marker 1 & Marker 2” memorial stones, which mark the location where the gliders landed. Then, stop at Café Gondrée, the first house in France to be liberated by the Allied forces on June 6, 1944.
3. Stop in Benouville for lunch.
4. Merville Battery Museum: Discover this reinforced German artillery position on the “Atlantic Wall.” Gain insight into the German coastal defense systems aimed at preventing an invasion by Allied armies from the sea and the assault on this position on the night of June 5-6, 1944, by British paratroopers from the 6th Airborne Division.
5. Visit the cemetery where German soldiers, killed during the battle of Normandy in 1944, are buried.
6. The Airborne Museum, a well-furnished museum with a lot of interesting pictures, maps, and military equipment giving an overview of the American airborne actions on D-Day.
5. Sainte-Mère-Église square and its church. Hear the story of the tragic arrival of American paratroopers on the night of June 5-6, 1944.
6. La Fière Bridge, a site where American troops (mainly paratroopers) had a very hard fight against Nazi forces from June 6-9, 1944, causing more than 750 American casualties (wounded or killed) to keep this bridge in Allied hands.
American Landing Sectors & Memorial Sites
1. Utah Beach, one of the two landing beaches used by American troops on D-Day. The units that arrived here joined the American paratroopers, who jumped inland during the night, to take control of the Cotentin peninsula roads and later Cherbourg harbor.
2. Seafront German artillery position at Pointe du Hoc, assaulted from the cliffs by American Ranger battalions on the morning of D-Day. Then, a lunch break at the "D Day House" restaurant, located at Omaha Beach.
3. Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, the first monument dedicated to the American troops who landed on Omaha Beach, on June 6, 1944. Visit the site that was temporarily used as a cemetery for American soldiers killed on D-Day and in the following days.
4. Vierville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach. Discover American military equipment displayed around the local museum, including American LCVP landing craft.
5. Visit the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.
6. WN62 German reinforced position. Located on the cliffs of Colleville-sur-Mer, discover, with some German soldiers' testimonies, what D-Day was like seen from that side of the battle. On the same site, visit the monument dedicated to the American 1st Infantry Division.
7. Walk on Omaha Beach to discover the view seen by the American troops landing on Omaha Beach.
8. American 29th Infantry Division memorial: dedicated to the landing troops who took part in the Omaha Beach invasion, in the early hours of D-Day.
